1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates an electronic apparatus and a control method thereof, particularly relates to a technique to control display of a menu screen for configuring the settings related to an electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, electronic apparatuses, such as digital cameras, have a known function of registering menu items that are frequently used by a user in one menu layer (my menu, custom menu) through a user operation, and enabling quick display of that menu layer simply by pressing a specific button (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-11219, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-99803).
Above-referenced Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-11219 does not disclose establishment of a plurality of independent custom menus. However, it is considered that a user uses different functions of an electronic apparatus under different situations and purposes of the use of the electronic apparatus. It would hence be convenient if the functions and settings to be used could be categorized according to the situations and purposes of the use of the electronic apparatus so as to establish separate custom menus in one-to-one correspondence with the categories. In this case, a plurality of my menus are established. In a case where a plurality of custom menus are established, there may be a setting item corresponding to one custom menu (e.g., an item for additionally registering a menu item in one custom menu). There may also be a setting item related to the entirety of the plurality of custom menus (e.g., an item for resetting all custom menus). In a case where these items have been prepared, if the user does not properly understand the range of the functions of these setting items during use, there is a possibility that the functions affect a range that is not intended by the user. For example, when the user intends to delete only a menu item registered in one custom menu, there is a possibility that the user mistakenly deletes all of the menu items registered in the plurality of custom menus, which gives rise to the need to redo a registration operation for the custom menus.
With regard to above-referenced Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-11219, assume the following case: after configuring the settings such that pressing of a specific button leads to display of a custom menu in which menu items frequently used by the user are registered, all menu items are deleted from the custom menu. In this case, it is presumed that the setting for displaying the custom menu upon pressing of the specific button is no longer necessary, and in order to remove this setting, the user needs to make a change to the settings.
In contrast, above-referenced Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-99803 fixedly places a function of displaying a custom menu at the topmost layer to “off (normal display state)” when all of the items registered in the custom menu are deleted. It is presumed here that, if all items in the custom menu are deleted while the function of displaying the custom menu at the topmost layer is in the “on” state, the display state of the custom menu will be changed to “off”. However, as the “on”/“off” setting is displayed at an unnoticeable location, the user cannot promptly discern the setting being changed to “off”. The user notices restoration to the “off” state (normal display state) only when the custom menu is not displayed in response to the user's operation of displaying the menu again.
On the other hand, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-097455, an item that is selected upon opening of a menu differs depending on whether a menu item is registered in a custom menu. Specifically, according to a method described therein, a menu is displayed with a selection of a predetermined menu item when a menu item is not registered in the custom menu, whereas a menu is displayed with a selection of a menu item for making a transition to the custom menu when a menu item is registered in the custom menu.
Some users may use different custom menus under different usage situations. In this case, it would be convenient if a plurality of menu items can be registered, by category, in a plurality of custom menus. However, if a plurality of custom menus are prepared from the beginning, there will be more items for displaying the custom menus. That is to say, for a user who does not need a plurality of custom menus, there will be a needlessly large number of options in one layer above a layer of the custom menus; this actually lowers usability.